The Wednesday Review – Star Wars: Uncut

January 25, 2012

The Wednesday Review – Star Wars: Uncut

Cast: You!

Directed by: Probably you as well.

 

Never underestimate the power of the internet.

 

For luminous memes it is, not this crude matter.

 

So what is with the warped Star Wars references you might ask? Well the reason is I have just finished watching Star Wars: A New Hope. Well I sort of did.

 

Actually I barely watched any of the original Star Wars, seeing only glimpses of it in the fan refilming Star Wars: Uncut. I should clarify that it is actually fans refilming as Star Wars: Uncut is a group collaborative project consisting of the original Star Wars cut up into 15second segments which anyone can then remake in any way they see fit.

 

The results are well, spectacular.

 

 

The quality, is to be admitted, rather all over the place depending on the submission. They range from amazing quality animation and clever re imaginings to rather average home productions. Fortunately at only 15 seconds long, each scene never outstays its welcome and instead makes you laugh uncontrollably.

 

Sometimes the internet produces something very special that brings out the best in people and combines that together into something amazing. Best of all we are here to experience if completely for free.

 

Because of the nature of this project rating it would be rather pointless. I will say that it is immensely enjoyable and I highly recommend you at least check out your favourite scenes. I guarantee at least a smile.

http://www.starwarsuncut.com/

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Posted by Jesse R

Contract killers

January 20, 2012

Due to the fabled ending of another two year phone contract in a few months I have of course been searching for that elusive ‘better deal’ that everyone offers but only few provide. I hunt around the varying deals and research the general reputation of each company and attempt to avoid the poorly recommended ones. Settling on an Optus plan as being my soon to be future one I decide that it may be prudent for the perhaps the first time in my life to read the fine print.

At first it seems reasonable with the usual clauses but then I arrived to the early cancellation section. Naturally the expectation to pay off the remainder of your handset fee is there. If you leave their service its only reasonable to pay your dues. The issue I find comes with the next two clauses that appear. Firstly a cancellation fee of $800 should you leave in the first 6 months with a $200 drop off each subsequent 6 month block. Secondly the requirement to pay out the remainder of your contract.

Some people will state that we have entered a contract with the company and therefore should be paying what is expected by what we have agreed to and signed to. Well the question I have is why are we forced to have contracts anyway?

The reality is that short of the handset fees, which are expected to pay off anyway, the company actually has zero investment into your part of the deal. Should you theoretically decide to stop using their service then the net damage to their profit is simply the loss of the money you were going to pay to use their service. So why, if you don’t wish to remain with their service, should you be expected to keep on paying for it? In addition why should we be paying cancellation fees just so we can take our money elsewhere?

It would seem to me that the only reason we actually accept the ideas of locked in contracts is because they are legally allowed to and that we are so used to it being the norm that we simply accept it as being another necessary part of owning a service.

It is no wonder that the telecommunications industry is rife with poor service and terrible overcharging as the entire contract setup is anti competitive to an almost perfect degree. Rather then being able to take out business elsewhere should we be unsatisfied we are instead forced to remain for no other reason then the fact that the company, and therefore every company, is allowed to force you.

Why can I change my insurance policy at the drop of a hat to anyone I choose but cannot do that with my phone or internet service? Its a question that has no real answer because there is no good reason why. It simply is that way but I wonder if perhaps it should be something that is looked into further.

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Posted by Jesse R

The Wednesday Review – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

January 18, 2012

The Wednesday Review – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)


Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist
Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander
Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger
Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger

Directed by David Fincher

I must first of all clarify that I have not seen the 2009 Swedish version nor have I read the book so this review will not be consisting of comparisons between the different versions.

This makes the question of “was this remake actually worth it?” a little harder to answer as I can only review it upon its own merits. Fortunately this is not difficult as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a damn fine film from beginning to end. Well, pretty much but I will get to that in a bit.

This version was directed by David Fincher who you may remember for a few little known movies such as Fight Club and 2010′s The Social Network which narrowly missed out on best picture at the academy awards. With directing credits such as these the expectations of a tightly made and character centric film are quite high. Fortunately Fincher delivers on these expectations incredibly well.

The film in brief consists of two stories that entwine together to solve a forty year old mystery. Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) is an investigative reporter, recently shamed from losing a libel case, who is hired by Henrik Vankger (Plummer) to investigative the death of his niece from over forty years ago, believing that only he can unravel the decadent and immoral lives of his family and discover the truths beneath. Meanwhile Lisbeth Salander (Mara), the titular character of the book, is a deeply troubled social outcast who survives by working as an investigative hacker, stealing information that people try their very best to hide. Her story is much more personally involved with the harsh reality of her dealing with a life of prejudices against her and people taking advantage of her at any moment. She soon she finds herself being hired by Mikael to help with his case and the two begin to discover horrifying secrets that one almost wishes had been left buried.

Without giving too much of the plot away I must make mention of the ideas of gender roles and the concepts of strength, both mental and physical. The casting of Craig, coming off of two James Bond films, really helps cement the themes of inner strength and the misjudgement of appearances. Of the two main characters, the socially stunted, deeply troubled girl is by far and away the strongest of the two and the one most willing to get the job done in spite of the normality that people impose. Other reviewers have compared Lisbeth to being a “grounded and realistic portrayal of hollywood women heroes” and I believe that this is fairly true. Her skills are many and she does not back down however there is a real vulnerability to her character that cements it as being “this could be real”. Rooney Mara has to be heavily complemented for this role. It cannot have been an easy one to fill but she was a remarkable stand out amongst an already great cast. Definitely and without doubt an award winning performance.

I would very much recommend the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo however I must say that the film does not quite end after the ending of the main plot and feels like the false endings of The Return of the King that the internet has made fun of for many a year. A few minutes cut out there may have helped improve the pacing but this is still a minor nitpicking.

Go see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it is not a dumb downed Hollywood remake in the slightest and is a tense, exciting, somewhat disturbing but overall excellent movie.

Four and a half false endings out of five.

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Posted by Jesse R

iThe iChina iSyndrome

January 17, 2012

It is difficult to really thing what life in the industrial revolution must have been like. Seventy hour work weeks, terrible pollution, laughable safety standards and the expectation that you should just be happy to be working and provide for your family. We laugh and thank god for our labour laws and the unions who fought long and hard to give people basic things such as the forty hour work week, suitable wages and the expectation of a safe work place.

Except that the industrial revolution only ended for west. China is right in the middle of one right now and the ones who reap the rewards are us.

It is very easy to forget about the human element in the production of what is essentially the great majority of our consumer goods. We kid ourselves that its all done through machines and robots and that the human element is small, but this is not the case. Such images are products of the idea of Japanese automation and advanced western practises. But with a basically inexhaustible labour force, China does not need such things to produce.

Foxconn is the worlds largest producer of consumer electronics, including brands such as Apple, Sony, Intel, and Microsoft, and quite probably the majority producer as well considering its own workforce exceeds a million people now. But bear in mind that this isn’t a million people by western standards. These are people who work sixty to seventy hour work weeks and take home a wage not befitting of their time and suffer chronic injuries and mental anguish to the point of suicide. Unconfirmed reports of child labour being utilised are not unheard of either which in my opinion is probably something simply swept under the rug.

But then there is no easy answer on our side of the fence. What if we all boycotted these products? Would that help the million people who rely on these wages to live? What about the millions of others who provide the materials and the shipping and the numerous other related industries?

Would the companies, who so far ignore the plight of the workers, change anything if it meant a decrease in profit? Most likely not.

So am I calling for a boycott of electronics and consumerism? No, of course not. When half of my own computer probably came from one of these factories I cannot say anything without being, in part, a hypocrite. Perhaps just awareness of the origins of our everyday items is helpful. It certainly can’t hurt.

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Posted by Jesse R

Who needs friends when you’ve got..

January 13, 2012

In passing conversation yesterday I remarked on the active social life of a friend. This friend always seems to be particularly actively sociable and getting out there and doing things with the weekend. Usually I simply lament those who I deem as “more sociable” as simply a better person to get along with or they are simply lucky to have friends who are still active in socialising but this isn’t really true.

 

The conversation developed past this as my friend told me how this kind of active social life certainly hadn’t simply appeared or was thrust upon them. This friend worked for it by rekindling old friendships that had diminished, due to the inclusion of partners and other life events, and pursuing new people contacts. It was a lot of hard work they say and I am beginning to believe it.

 

As we get older and subsequently more set in our own ways, routines and habits we drift from friendships unnecessarily. We didn’t necessarily have a falling out or even that one person moved to the other side of the world. We simply became too complacent to give a damn. Why do we do this?

I have no ready answer but then again most people do not either. It is something that I regularly complain about in my personal life but really don’t do anything about fixing.

 

So perhaps this is a wake up call in a way. To seek out new friends from the old and see where that takes me. It certainly cannot hurt and I may realise something that I had been missing out on for years. It certainly has to be better then whining about people not going out any more.

 

You undoubtedly have a dozen or more old friends added to Facebook ‘just cause’ who you have neglected to message so perhaps you should try the same thing too. It cant hurt you either!

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Posted by Jesse R

The Wednesday Review – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

January 11, 2012

The Wednesday Review – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke

Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo

 

Directed by Terry Gilliam

 

The first thing you may notice is the rather short cast list for this weeks movie. This isn’t to say that Fear and Loathing lacks other characters, it merely says that said characters are part of such a drug fevered psychotic dream that you barely realise just who played said characters before your mind folds in on itself.

 

Fear and loathing is based upon the book by the same name, written by Hunter S Thompson as a thinly veiled version of the real life events he experienced during his time as a “gonzo journalist”. Reportedly this film spent many years to be made with actors such as Jack Nicholson and even John Belushi but varying reasons meant it was not to be for many years to come.

 

Much like the real life adventures of Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing is a story that the audience experiences rather then watches. The disjointed narrative barely holds together, just like our protagonist, and the film is all the better for it.

 

Johnny Depp transforms himself into Raoul Duke, a thinly veiled analogue to the real Hunter S Thompson, and along with his Attorney, Dr Gonzo, played by the similarly disguised Benicio del Toro but journey to the fabled Las Vegas in order to write an article about the Mint 400 “The richest off-road race for motorcycles and dune-buggies in the history of organised sport!”. The film quickly devolves into a fiasco of drugs, hallucinations and general immoral actions.

 

I admit however that it can be a difficult film to watch. The first fifteen odd minutes is without doubt cinematic perfection of comedy, characterisation and acting. After that the film loses a bit of its steam and flip flops a bit between the different events in the film. It is by no means a bad thing necessarily but the opening is by far and away the strongest part of the film.

The film would undoubtedly have not worked had it not been for the excellent performances by Johnny Depp and Del Toro. It is rare to find a role that the actor is so completely lost in that you lose all sight of the original actor and fully believe that this is the real deal. Depp and Del Toro both pull this off remarkably and easily carry the film along its less then normal paths.

 

It is also rather easy to spot the directorial influences from Terry Gilliam with scenes of men and woman turning into reptiles and Duke walking around a flooded hotel room with a tape recorder taped to his chest. The themes are largely reminiscent of his previous works and frankly I cannot think of any other director more capable then creating the visual idea of a man in a ether binge.

 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is an easily recommended film. It will definitely not cater to some people and I must warn that if you have a particular issue with drugs, drug taking and drug collecting then this film is perhaps not to your taste. To everyone else, see this film.

 

Four salt shakers of cocaine out of five.

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Posted by Jesse R

Boat people are people too!

January 6, 2012

No I am not trying to be silly with a title like that. I really bloody mean it.

It no longer shocks me, although it does give me great disdain, to hear people dismiss asylum seekers as no good then animals or comparing them to other less then desirable things. One consistent notion I do come across is dehumanization.

What I mean by this is it is much easier to ignore the near perpetual incarceration of fellow human beings when we pretend they weren’t human in the first place. Don’t worry, its by no means a unique thing to this situation in any way. The Jews were coping it for years before getting brutally murdered in their millions, black people in America were subject to it and still are in many ways and lets not forget our own Aboriginals who are still marginalised and stigmatised to horrifying degrees.

So now there are “boat people” whose terrible crime of… attempting to seek a better life away from destitution and oppression, means they should be locked away for upwards of a year. How many of these people are people worthy of actual refugee status? Well under the Rudd government over 95% of the mere 2750 people were.

Can you honestly remember the last time an asylum seeker influenced your life in anyway? Unless you deal with the boats directly or are part of the processing then I seriously doubt you have even met a person who arrived by boat let alone had them influence your life in any meaningful way.

So tell me then, why is it such a huge problem? Why do you base your politics around it? Why do you think we should be locking human beings away for large amounts of ‘processing’ time when there is no need nor any real issue otherwise?

Casual racism may be prevalent in this country but frankly I don’t see why it should remain so in any form. We are better then that as individuals and as a nation.

 

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Posted by Jesse R

The Wednesday Review: Dark City

January 4, 2012

The Wednesday Review: Dark City (1998)

Rufus Sewell – John Murdoch

William Hurt – Inspector Frank Bumstead

Kiefer Sutherland – Dr. Daniel P. Schreber

Jennifer Connelly – Emma Murdoch / Anna

Richard O’Brien – Mr. Hand

 

Directed by Alex Proyas

 

Let us take a short trip back some twelve years to 1999 and remember films of this time that really stand out. The first movie you may think of would be The Matrix which was such a huge financial, critical and cultural hit that it spawned a massive franchise of a mostly excellent series of shorts, some bad to average video games and two absolutely wretched sequels that did nothing but pretentiously waste your time and money.

 

I mention The Matrix not because it is the focus of this review but largely because it was the movie that overshadowed the fantastically made Dark City that not only came out just before the Matrix in 1998 but also also lent its sets to the people making The Matrix.

 

Dark City was largely overshadowed due to it being, in a manner, a similar movie but lacking the modern style of an action movie. In fact whereas the Matrix merely utilised old film noir styles, Dark City relished in them and designed the entire movie in a 1940′s art deco style that is frankly completely gorgeous. The visual effects in this movie are made all the better considering this was still the time before computers dominated the effects field. The effects bring the dreamlike world to life.

 

The basic premise of the story is John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awake in a bathtub in a run down hotel and cannot for the life of him remember anything about his past, not even his name. Upon dressing in what appear to be brand new clothes he receives a call from Dr Screbeer (Played by Sutherland) who explains that his memories are gone and that he must talk with him face to face but he must hurry as he is being followed. Murdoch discovers a murdered prostitute lying next to the bed and runs, narrowly avoiding a group of darkly dressed men who are very interested in the crime scene.

Murdoch must now discover his identity, his family, who these strange men are and why everyone suddenly falls asleep at 12am every night..

 

This is about the most plot I am willing to give away in this review as I very much recommend you seeing it on your own terms and discovering the intricacies of the plot for yourselves. Dark City however is not a straight up mystery and is very much cemented in the sci fi genre. It deals with aspect of what is reality and who or what is actually controlling your destiny and identity. These themes are very similar to what is found in The Matrix but the execution is very different and just as satisfying.

I must point out that if you are going to watch this film it is important to watch the directors cut, or failing that mute the sound up until the title appears, for the studio included narration from Sutherland ruins the majority of the plot reveals and their exclusion brings the audience much closer to the confusion and desperation of the protagonist. You follow his journey with as much clue and idea as he and you both learn the realities of his world together.

Dark City was also written and directed by Australian director Alex Proyas who is also well known for The Crow and you can certainly see his visual style within the movie. It is unquestionably a film noir inspired setting, with the sharply shadowed streets and fedora wearing detectives. I must also give a lot of praise for constructing a script that lends itself perfectly for creating a character that is a great audience guide. Murdoch is literally in the dark as much as the audience and every element of the script allows exposition to flow naturally. As fast paces as the film is it never skips over anything of importance and never leaves you feeling bewildered.

 

I would very much recommend Dark City to anyone who enjoys mystery and/or science fiction movies. It may not be an out and out action movie like The Matrix but it most certainly will never leave you bored.

Rating: Four fish in bathtubs out of five.

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Posted by Jesse R

A pixel resolution

January 2, 2012

Happy new year everyone! I hope you all have had fun and have many new year resolutions to attempt!

Except for me, I don’t do new years resolutions as its far to easy to fob them off at a later date under the excuse of “well everyone fails them”.

Self improvement is a difficult thing as its only motivator comes from within, from you and it is most likely that you are the most unreliable person you are acquainted with. However it seems to me that it is seen as a frivolous thing that is only there to eliminate what others see as bad habits or are otherwise inconveniences to some idea of a better life. In fact I dare say that ninety percent of everyones “new year resolutions” are simply trying to eliminate bad habits.

Well why is this so? Why are we looking at life in such a negative fashion? Where are the self enhancements like starting a short course  or learning a language? How about learning to paint a picture or dancing? Why is it that after smoking, losing weight is the the biggest resolutions that people come up with? Sure it is a beneficial thing but I wonder how many people do it to make them look good to others rather then seeing it as a way to improve their own lives.

Instead of starting these resolutions at the convenient time of the new years why not just go out there and do it, regardless of the time? Go out there and keep yourself educated and creative. Go and do something that helps inwardly and ignore what others may think.

 

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Posted by Jesse R

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